This book offers an excellent compendium of works of some of the great Russian artists and architects, many of whom are not as well known in the West as they are in Russia, but should be.

The illustrations, including 124 in color and 24 in black-and-white, are accompanied by brief notes about the artistic significance of the works. Most of the paintings reproduced come from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow or the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Western audiences may find surprising the extent to which you can learn about the culture and the history of the country from these magnificent works of art, including those by Nikolay Gay, Valentin Serov, Vasily Surikov and the great Ilya Repin. There is no index, but the selections are arranged in chronological order, and in any event, they are so wonderful I can’t imagine anyone would mind having to leaf through the book to find different artists. ( )